Hundreds of extremists protest Kosovo plan in Belgrade Ruby’s nightmare is over: Berlusconi acquitted in “Bunga-Bunga” trial

Several hundred ultra-nationalists demonstrated in the center of Belgrade on Wednesday evening against a new plan by the international community to defuse the situation in Kosovo. The far-right and pro-Russian organization People’s Patrol called for the meeting, the news portal “danas.rs” reported. Many participants also waved Russian flags.

The protest started in a park near the Serbian presidential office. Police pushed back a group of protesters who wanted to gain access to the official residence of head of state Aleksandar Vucic, state television RTS reported.

In his speech, People’s Patrol leader Damjan Knezevic described Vucic as a “traitor” for having recently endorsed the Kosovo plan. “I swear to you, we are prepared for much more than chaos,” he threatened.

Today, inhabited almost exclusively by Albanians, Kosovo has been independent since 2008. Serbia does not recognize the state of its former southern province. The plan, launched last autumn and supported by the EU and the US, provides, among other things, for Serbia not to recognize the state of Kosovo for the time being, but its existence and its inclusion in international organizations – with Russian help – no longer blocked.

For Serbian nationalists, a ‘task’ of Kosovo – the area was a center of the then Serbian state in the Middle Ages – is a red flag. Before the rally in Belgrade, police arrested two men who had been carrying a shotgun and ammunition in their car. They were stopped in Sremska Kamenica, 80 kilometers northwest of Belgrade, and were said to have been on their way to the rally. (aeg/sda/dpa)